


Hospital Visits

by lesbianshibs



Series: Combien de Temps Cela Me Prendra-t-il? [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amputee Rock Lee, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Genderqueer Neji Hyuuga, Hospitals, M/M, She/He/They pronouns for Neji Hyuuga, Trans Rock Lee, it's not relevant in this fic but y'all should know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28657767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianshibs/pseuds/lesbianshibs
Summary: Rock Lee is back in the hospital for a second amputation.Or; Gaara and Neji remember their boyfriend's favourite comfort food.
Relationships: Gaara/Hyuuga Neji, Gaara/Hyuuga Neji/Rock Lee, Gaara/Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji/Rock Lee
Series: Combien de Temps Cela Me Prendra-t-il? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995982
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Hospital Visits

Three years ago, Lee and Neji were driving back to the city after a hometown Christmas visit and were caught in a huge car accident. Neji’s side of the vehicle was damaged when the car next to them skidded on some ice and swerved into the passenger side. He was mostly fine, just a dislocated shoulder and some minor whiplash. The driver side, on the other hand, was T-boned by an 18 wheeler who couldn't slam on the breaks in time. Lee was lucky he wasn’t crushed. 

His left left had to be amputated almost immediately. The bone was shattered into a million pieces and there was no hope of recovery. His arm, on the other hand, was better off. Only part of the bone was shattered, so some surgery was all that was needed. That was truly the only up side. 

Until last spring, after Lee had _finally_ started to get used to his prosthetic. He started getting random spasms of pain in his arm. It wasn’t like Neji’s occasional nerve sparks from rough dislocation, they were increasingly violent stabs. So Gaara took him to the hospital for some tests. The two returned a couple of weeks later for results and were informed that Lee had developed an Osteomyelitis infection. Apparently part of their car’s metal had lodged itself deep inside his bone, and when the surgeons were cleaning it out… Some of the germs still remained. They’d grown over time and had infected his bone, blood and even some tissue. The infection had travelled all the way down to his forearm. It was no longer salvageable, they had to amputate it. 

So here Lee was now. Laying in a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to ignore the feeling of nothing that was plaguing his left side. Sometimes he could close his eyes and still feel the stabbing pain in his forearm, the ache in his elbow joint. He knew about phantom limb pain, he’d been through it before. Somehow though… this time it felt worse. It had been a _rough_ couple of weeks. 

“Knock knock,” The hospital door opened with a squeak. 

“Neji?” He questioned, head snapping towards the door and eyebrows nearly raising into his hairline. “What’re you doing here, love?”

“And here I thought you’d be happy to see us,” The brunette teased, fully opening the door and walking inside. A familiar redhead shuffled into the room. 

“Us? What’re you- Gaara! You two were just here yesterday, I didn’t think I’d see you for another day!” Lee said excitedly, shuffling so he was sitting up straight in his bed. Neji slid the door closed and moved over to the window blind’s stick, fiddling with it awkwardly. Gaara hadn’t moved from his spot in the entrance, holding his arms around his stomach like he was sick.

“Neji. Hurry.” Gaara whisper-yelled, squinting his eyes at the empty hallway through the glass.

“I’m _trying_. These vanes are excessively finicky,” The brunette hissed as they whipped their head to face their shorter lover, ponytail smacking audibly against the hospital wall. 

“Only you would know the name for the small sticky thing that closes blinds,” Gaara mumbled, curling into himself more.

“Don’t crush it!” Neji protested as she finally managed to close the blinds. “ _Also,_ that is a perfectly normal thing to know the name of.”

“No, it’s not,” Gaara rolled his eyes as Neji moved closer, unfurling his body from it’s hunched over position. 

“Yes, it is,” Neji huffed childishly, kissing the redhead on the forehead before reaching up to start undoing the zipper on his winter jacket. 

“What is going on?” Lee inquired, yet again, from his spot on the bed. “Are you hiding something? Is it illegal? You know I would do anything for you two but I’m not sure if smuggling anything highly criminal into a hospital is a good-”

“No! _Oh my goodness, Lee,”_ Neji whispered viciously over his shoulder. “It’s not illegal, it’s just… probably not allowed while you’re recovering.”

“What are you…” Lee let his voice drift off as Gaara completely opened his jacket. The redhead’s slender fingers pulled at the zipper, revealing . Lee could feel the warmth already, spreading across his body in waves and lifting him up to the heavens. 

They brought him McDonalds.

“Nothing we read online said that osteomyelitis recovery required a strict diet, and we know that you always like to reward yourself with some chicken nuggets after a particularly productive week… so…” Gaara shuffled from foot to foot, awkwardly squeezing the top of the crumpled bag. A silence settled over the room as Lee just gawked at the large yellow M printed on the brown paper bag. 

“We… You haven’t had food from outside the hospital in a couple of weeks…” Neji slid their hands behind their back, no doubt tugging at their fingers nervously. The brunette rocked back on their heels, but held onto the one-sided eye contact with their boyfriend. 

“You two…” Lee croaked out, his throat contracting repeatedly in an attempt to calm himself down. He could feel the tears prickling behind his eyes, his fingers itching to reach up and brush the feeling away. Despite his best internal efforts, a few stray tears slid down his face. He could feel the dam breaking slowly as his mouth dried out. His head dropped to his chest and he lifted his right hand to scrub at his eyes. His left arm raised as well, the phantom feeling of his forearm wiping across his cheeks. “You two did this for me?”

“Oh, _Lee,_ ” Neji pleaded, taking the few steps needed to meet his bedside. She extended her hand forward, brushing her fingers against Lee’s face gently. “We would do anything for you if you asked.”

“I _know,_ but I didn’t ask,” Lee sobbed, chest heaving with the force of his breathing. He hunched over further as he felt a hand on his back. He didn’t have to open his eyes to see it, he knew it was Gaara’s. The redhead always had the most gentle hands, the sweetest of touches. Neji moved with a purpose, his body pressing forward. He knew what he needed to do, almost by instinct or fate. Gaara was lighter. He didn’t know, he never did. But he was still always there, tender and malleable to what either of them needed. Playing a small guessing game of touch. Even if he didn’t _know,_ by chance he was… always right. “I didn’t ask for a-anything, but you still came to see me for lunch when you _should_ be at work, with my favourite comfort food at th-the time I felt loneliest. You just _did_ it, and I-I love you so much.”

Lee felt the bed dip to his right and an arm fully slide around his shoulders, the pleasant touch spreading warmth across his bare back where the hospital gown broke apart. Gaara’s hot cheek pressed against his shoulder, free hand skimming across the bare skin of his arm. Neji’s lips pressed against the top of his head, their cool skin against his hair. They kept their thumb brushing over his cheekbone, their mouth smoothed over the crown of his head. Lee felt his body relax, tension seeping out of his bones like honey as his lover’s held him. His breathing returned to normal, his subconscious copying the slow breaths of the two people surrounding him. He was the first to move, straightening his back. His lover’s retracted their heads at his movement, and he missed the touch already.

“Come here,” Lee whispered, voice still husky from the tears. He leaned back into the plush of the hospital bed, and Gaara immediately followed. The redhead placed the McDonalds bag on his boyfriend’s lap, slotting himself between Lee’s body and the edge of the bed. He curled around the taller boy, one leg slightly hiked up over Lee’s hip, and his arm still around his shoulders. Neji hesitated, eyeing the small amount of space on the edge of the bed and Lee’s freshly bandaged arm. He instead went for the safer route, sliding off his shoes and peeling the thin hospital blanket off of his boyfriend's body. He carefully crawled onto the bed, easing himself between Lee’s legs and sitting criss cross. Neji gently settled his lover’s right leg around his waist, and placed what remained of Lee’s left in his lap. The brunette’s hands settled on the stump, gently massaging the scarred skin with skilled hands. After about a year of helping Lee through his PLP mirror therapy, it was a habit. His fingers just itched to knead against the tan skin again, to provide any source of relief from his helpless position. 

“Would you like to eat? I don’t want your food to get any colder, or any mushier-” Neji said, shooting Gaara a purposeful look. “-than it already is.”

“I didn’t _mean_ to squish it, I just didn’t want to get caught.” Gaara huffed, blush blooming across his face. 

“I do not care if this is the coldest, mushiest, ickiest McDonalds chicken nuggets ever tasted, Heaven could not provide a more delicious meal!” Lee said excitedly, wiping at his tears one last time.

And as he sat there holding back tears, he was surprised to feel that for the first time in ages…it wasn’t about his leg. He should be continuing to cry over the resurgence of the infection or the future of his rehabilitation. Instead, he was crying over his boyfriend’s saccharine sweetness. As he watched his lovers bicker over what qualified as ‘mushy’ fast food, he beamed. He pushed back more tears that were burning his eyes, and his hand shook as it reached for the bag of food that was warming his lap. Gaara’s leg on his waist, Neji’s fingers on the skin of his thigh. Maybe, right now, he didn’t _need_ to cry over what he had lost. 

  
He didn’t lose _everything._ Because they were right here.

**Author's Note:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING !!!!!
> 
> as always my dudes, you can find me as lesbianshibs everywhere !!


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